With the apocalypse looming...

by J.R. Wagner

 I had another dream about the end of the world the other night. I thought it would be ironic to share it today since, according to the Mayans, the end of the world is coming tomorrow.  Unlike my last apocalyptic dream, which included a nuclear holocaust, this dream was all about water. Lots of water.

-thank you very much, Al Gore!

Al Gore, Mr. Global Warming

Tower Crane

 I was standing on the top part of a tower crane, the rest of which extended down into the deep blue abyss, up to my knees in water.  There was water everywhere so I'm assuming there was a major flood of some sort.  Anyway, my family was there and I was attempting to rescue them when the sharks came (the water wasn't enough, there had to be sharks).  I remember dipping my head into the water and looking at the shark and saying, "It's okay, it isn't a great white shark!" (because there aren't other man-eating sharks in the ocean)

Shark!

Not long after flailing around in the water as the sharks continued to circle us, I woke up.

I went on my run later that morning and about two miles in, about six Chinook-looking helicopters flew overhead.  I became slightly paranoid and my pace quickened.

Never a good sign

As I continued something else out of the ordinary happened. An unusual sound pierced the otherwise typically quiet area.  Fire engine sirens -lots of them.  I understand that the odds of seeing military helicopters in flight where I live aren't great because it is a rather quiet area.  Now, add in the blaring of several fire engine sirens and I became even more paranoid.

Here is the strange part (as if this all isn't strange) the siren's didn't stop.  Usually, when I do hear them at all, they blare for a minute or two and are gone.  This day, they continued for the duration of my run -a good 45 minutes. When I got home, I was expecting to find my house a smoldering pile of rubble surrounded by zombies but fortunately, this wasn't the case.





It turns out I managed to discover what was up with the fire engine nonsense. 

yep, blame it on the big guy

Desire for an apocalypse: a psychological analysis Part 2

Part 2 -is it all in your mind?

Is there something diagnostically wrong with the people who wish for mass death and destruction in the form of an apocalyptic event? Is there something misfiring inside the neuron-filled superhighway that comprises their brain?

The word, apocalypticism (yup, there's a word for it) is defined (by my buddies at Dictionary.com) as any doctrine concerning the end of the temporal world, especially one based on the supposed prophetic passages in the Revelation of St. John the Divine.

So people have been secretly wishing for the end of times since...dare I say, the dawn of time (we're a morbid race, us humans, aren't we?). 


PBS even has a pictorial chronology of the 'Apocalyptic Worldview' a phrase coined by Lorenzo DiTommaso, a professor of religion at Concordia University in Montreal.

In the article from Psychology Today: Why the World Will End in 2012 by Howard Bloom, Bloom references a 60 year old experiment cited in his book, The Lucifer Principle. The experiment (described below) hints at the genetic need to thrive (and therefore wipe out your competition). Essentially, humans have a subconscious and primal need to destroy the competition so they can spread their own genes and thrive. 

"In the late 1940's, the German researcher F. Steiniger put fifteen brown rats who had never met each other into a cage. At first the creatures cowered in the corners, frightened and apprehensive. If they accidentally bumped into each other, they bared their teeth and snapped. Gradually, however, it dawned on some of the males that among this batch of strangers were attractive young females. The gentleman rodents became budding Don Juans and went a courting.

The first male and female to win each others' hearts now had something all the others lacked an ally. The pair took full advantage of the situation: they terrorized their cagemates. At first, the lovers simply chased their fellow rodents away from food, sending them scurrying to the safety of the far end of the enclosure. Later, the romantic duo hunted down their neighbors one by one. The female was a particularly quick killer. She would sneak up on a victim as it was quietly chewing a bit of chow, spring with a sudden speed, and bite the unfortunate in the side of the neck, often opening a wound in the carotid artery. Some of the attacked died of infection. Others, mauled and worn down by frantic efforts to escape, succumbed to exhaustion. When the happy couple had finished, they were the only survivors.

The rats had cleared the new territory of competitors, transforming the cage into a spacious land of milk and honey for themselves. A new promised land. Now, they could found a tribe that might if left to its own devices thrive for generations to come. A tribe that would carry the parental line of genes."

Unfortunately, Bloom concludes with what appears to be a politically motivated series of questions rather than speculating on the the possible demise of humanity as we know it.  I guess when you're publishing in Psychology Today, you aren't given the liberty of causing mass hysteria.

Fortunately, I'm bound by no such constraints.

So is apocalypticism some type of neurological disorder or simply a manifestation of the desire to spread our genes while destroying the competition?

Desire for an apocalypse: a psychological analysis Part I

Part I

That's right, I said desire.  There are many, many people (mostly male) who have an innate desire for some world altering event that will ravage the population and leave them, in most cases, alone to battle the remnants of whatever caused this apocalypse or find other survivors and begin again.

The apocalypse,  the end of the world, the rapture -whatever you call it, the words bear the same meaning. Some event that violently and tragically alters the existence of humanity.

With December, 2012 right around the corner, what better time to delve into a topic that has captured the imaginations of readers, writers, filmmakers and fans for centuries.

There are loads of websites dedicated to the nonsensical notion that the world will end on December 21st of this year.  I've decided to delve into this subject from a more entertainment providing perspective so fear not, fun will be had by all!

Before the analysis of the mind that wishes for the end, lets take a look at some popular scenarios.

1. Meteor

2. Nuclear holocaust

3. The Rapture

4. A super-virus

5. Zombies

6. I'll throw in a geological disaster for S&G's

7. World War III